Countries distinguish between metropolitan (homeland) and independent and semi-independent portions of sovereign states. If you want to see the dependent overseas regions broken out (like in ISO codes, see France for example), use map units instead. Each country is coded with a world region that roughly follows the United Nations setup. Countries are coded with standard ISO and FIPS codes. French INSEE codes are also included. Includes some thematic data from the United Nations (1), U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and elsewhere.

HydroSHEDS (Hydrological data and maps based on SHuttle Elevation Derivatives at multiple Scales) provides hydrographic information in a consistent and comprehensive format for regional and global-scale applications. The HydroSHEDS database provides a suite of raster and vector datasets, covering many of the common derivative products used in hydrological analyses, including stream networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and ancillary data layers such as flow accumulations, distances, and river topology information. The goal of developing HydroSHEDS was to generate key data layers to support regional and global watershed analyses, hydrological modeling, and freshwater conservation planning at a quality, resolution and extent that has previously been unachievable. Available resolutions range from 3 arc-second (approx. 90 meters at the equator) to 5 minute (approx. 10 km at the equator) with seamless near-global extent. HydroSHEDS has been developed by the Conservation Science Program of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in partnership or collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT); The Nature Conservancy (TNC); McGill University, Montreal, Canada; the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; and the Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR), University of Kassel, Germany. Major funding for this project was provided to WWF by JohnsonDiversey, Inc. and Sealed Air Corporation. HydroSHEDS data are free for non-commercial and commercial use. See License Agreement for specific restrictions and use requirements.

International boundary resources are prepared by United Nations Cartographic Section. The 1:1million dataset derived initially from VMAP0 has been corrected to better reflect the cartographic practise of UN Cartographic Section. These datasets are intended to provide the United Nations community with worldwide coverage of international boundaries consistent with the boundary representations that are used by the U.N. Cartographic Section at scales of 1:1 million and 1:15 million. Under no circumstances should this dataset, and/or any map derived from it, be construed as an official representation or endorsement of these international boundaries by the United Nations.

The Global Land Surface Water Dataset in 30m Resolution in 2010 (GlobeLand30-WTR2010 for short) was developed based on data mining methodology by integrating and analyzing the 9907 scenes of the USA Landsat TM5, ETM+ data and 2640 scenes of the China environment disaster mitigation satellite (HJ-1) data in 2010（±1）. The total area of the land surface water is 3,675,400 km2, which is 2.73% of the global land surface area. More than 40% of land surface water is located in North America. The global data were organized into 853 tiles, according to the 5° (latitude) x 6° (longitude) within the region from 60°S to 60 N, and 5° (latitude) x 12° (longitude) within the region from 60° N to 80°N (the Antarctic continent is not included). The data tiles are combined into 5 compressed data groups (Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa, and Oceanic Countries), Four different data files are comprised in each of these data groups. They are: (1) land surface water data (raster data with GeoTIFF format); (2) coordinate information data (TIFF WORD format); (3) areas of selected remote sensing data (.shp format); and (4) a metadata file (XML format). In addition, the 853 data file list, including the file names, corresponding geographic coordinates and zoning codes, are listed at the file. The dataset is one of the layers of the Global Land Cover Dataset in 30m Resolution in 2010 (GlobeLand30_2010), which were donated to the United Nations by China in September 2014. Data citation: CHEN Jun et al. : Global Land Surface Water Dataset in 30m Resolution (2010) ( GlobeLand30-WTR2010 ) ,Global Change Research Data Publishing & Repository,DOI:10.3974/geodb.2014.02.01.V1, http://www.geodoi.ac.cn/WebEn/doi.aspx?DOI=10.3974/geodb.2014.02.01.V1 Available at: http://www.geodoi.ac.cn/WebEn/doi.aspx?Id=159

Global map of open permanent water bodies at 300m spatial resolution derived from the full ENVISAT-ASAR dataset between 2005 and 2010. In an attempt to improve the characterization of inland water bodies in global LC products, a SAR-based approach has been implemented. Multi-temporal acquisitions of Envisat ASAR Wide Swath Mode with local gap fillers based on Image Mode and Global Monitoring Mode from the years 2005 to 2010, MERIS data and auxiliary datasets have been used to generate a single epoch map of permanent open water bodies at 300 m. Static map of stable open water bodies at 300m spatial resolution resulting from a land/water classification based on Envisat ASAR, SRTM-SWBD and MERIS data. The water pixels of this map correspond to the class "Water Bodies" of the CCI-LC Maps. The product consists of 3 layers: Map land/permanent water classification at 300m spatial resolution. Legend : 1-Land, 2-Water, NObsImsWS number of observations originating from the ASAR Wide Swath Mode + Image Monitoring Mode imagery, NObsImsGM number of observations originating from the ASAR global monitoring mode imagery.

The Global Reservoir and Dam Database, Version 1 (Revision 01) contains 6,862 records of reservoirs and their associated dams with a cumulative storage capacity of 6,197 cubic km. The dams were geospatially referenced and assigned to polygons depicting reservoir outlines at high spatial resolution. Dams have multiple attributes, such as name of the dam and impounded river, primary use, nearest city, height, area and volume of reservoir, and year of construction (or commissioning). While the main focus was to include all dams associated with reservoirs that have a storage capacity of more than 0.1 cubic kilometers, many smaller dams and reservoirs were added where data were available. The data were compiled by Lehner et al. (2011) and are distributed by the Global Water System Project (GWSP) and by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). For details please refer to the Technical Documentation which is provided with the data.

United Nations map (known as UNmap) is a worldwide geospatial database consisting of country and geographic name information on a global scale. The data is designed for the production of cartographic documents and maps, including their dissemination via public electronic networks, for the Secretariat of the United Nations.The United Nations maintains the Data as a courtesy to those who may choose to access the Data. The Data is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Disclaimers: - The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. - The designations employed and the presentation of material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. - Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. - The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been agreed upon by the parties. - Final boundary between the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan has not yet been determined. - Final status of the Abyei area is not yet determined. - A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). Generalization parametrisation for the data is developed based on the work of Douglas and Peucker (1973), Wang (1996) and the Polynomial Approximation with Exponential Kernel algorithm.The adequate generalized data should be used for the intended dissemination scale and not rely on software or platform-automated generalization as some specific geographic features are removed at scales. For instance, the region of Abyei is not included at the scale of 1:25 million but is included at lower scales. Maps produced using this layer should be featured with the appropriate disclaimer depending on the shown area. Source: United Nations International and Administrative Boundaries Resources

World Countries is a detailed dataset of country level boundaries which can be used at both large and small scales. It has been designed to be used as a basemap and includes an additional Disputed Boundaries layer that can be used to edit boundaries to fit a users needs and view of the political world. Included are attributes for local and official names and country codes, along with continent and display fields. Particularly useful are the Land_Type and Land_Rank fields which separate polygons based on their size. These attributes can be used for rendering at different scales by providing the ability to turn off small islands which may clutter small scale views.

United Nations map (known as UNmap) is a worldwide geospatial database consisting of country and geographic name information on a global scale. The data is designed for the production of cartographic documents and maps, including their dissemination via public electronic networks, for the Secretariat of the United Nations.The United Nations maintains the Data as a courtesy to those who may choose to access the Data. The Data is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Disclaimers: - The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. - The designations employed and the presentation of material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. - Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. - The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been agreed upon by the parties. - Final boundary between the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan has not yet been determined. - Final status of the Abyei area is not yet determined. - A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). Generalization parametrisation for the data is developed based on the work of Douglas and Peucker (1973), Wang (1996) and the Polynomial Approximation with Exponential Kernel algorithm.The adequate generalized data should be used for the intended dissemination scale and not rely on software or platform-automated generalization as some specific geographic features are removed at scales. For instance, the region of Abyei is not included at the scale of 1:25 million but is included at lower scales. Maps produced using this layer should be featured with the appropriate disclaimer depending on the shown area. Source: United Nations International and Administrative Boundaries Resources

United Nations map (known as UNmap) is a worldwide geospatial database consisting of country and geographic name information on a global scale. The data is designed for the production of cartographic documents and maps, including their dissemination via public electronic networks, for the Secretariat of the United Nations.The United Nations maintains the Data as a courtesy to those who may choose to access the Data. The Data is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Disclaimers: - The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. - The designations employed and the presentation of material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. - Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. - The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been agreed upon by the parties. - Final boundary between the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan has not yet been determined. - Final status of the Abyei area is not yet determined. - A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). Generalization parametrisation for the data is developed based on the work of Douglas and Peucker (1973), Wang (1996) and the Polynomial Approximation with Exponential Kernel algorithm.The adequate generalized data should be used for the intended dissemination scale and not rely on software or platform-automated generalization as some specific geographic features are removed at scales. For instance, the region of Abyei is not included at the scale of 1:25 million but is included at lower scales. Maps produced using this layer should be featured with the appropriate disclaimer depending on the shown area. Source: United Nations International and Administrative Boundaries Resources